Plumber's Blue

The short, swarthy plumber was exhausted. He sat heavily on the curb beside the street, he hadn't eaten anything but mushrooms all day and his long sleeve red shirt was much too hot for the afternoon sun. Hot, hungry, tired and heart sore.

He half moved, half dropped his left hand to the hammer beside him. Closing his hand around the hammer while he closed his eyes, lest some hoodlum try to steal it. He placed his other hand over his dark mustache and then to his cheek, so he could rest the weight of his head on it.

At first he just listened to his breath, long and deep. Then his mind wondered, to the Ghost Hunters, why couldn't he have it like than, plumbers by day and TV celebrity, ghost hunters at night. That would be a dream. A big black van, instead of a super-up go kart to go place to place. Sure, it would have been fine when all he had to worry about was being the referee for a Heavyweight match, something he did when he was younger, but where do you put pipe dope and wrenches in a one seat, kiddie car.

He supposed this wasn't the worst he had it, but it sure seemed close. Peach? Why had she given him the wrong address?

He wiped his face before anyone saw the tears and opened his eyes. Looking for something to take his mind off of her. A construction truck spewed exhaust and wobbled left and right down the street until turning into the site a block down. He could see the girders and scaffolding, but he thought about the girl of his dreams. It he been at a site, not much different than that one when he had fully committed himself to her.

No one really explained how the ape got loose from the zoo, or why he acted like King Kong, grabbing a woman in a dress and dragging her to the top of the building, but he did. Luigi, the plumber's brother wanted to leave the site. "We're here to get the pluming between the studs before the construction is complete, not tangle with some pissed off monkey.". He had said. It was like he knew about the barrels of nails, or the fire, or worse the aloof attitude of the girl. Peach. He knew better but he couldn't get her out if his mind.

The plumber picked a little piece of turtle goo out of the tread of his shoe. Why had he bothered? It was not like she called him. But... She was perfect. Her dress and gloves, the little crown that had everyone calling her Princess.

When the call came he came running, leaving the job site and going the castle he had been told she was in. He could lose his job for that, but she was worth it, wasn't she. He risked everything. Then, at the end, when he imagined an embrace and a kiss, when he would be the hero the proved himself, become the night in shining armor, a servant wondered in, like she had he instructed him to. He had looked up at the plumber, who thought he gad won, and said, "Your Princess is in another castle."

If this was love, he wanted nothing to do with it.